This is a brief historical guide to Norton St Philip, adapted
from a village tour written in 1978 by Jeremy Taylor, Sita Smyth and Pat
Lawless.

Please note: there are links
in the text will take you to a photo of the location concerned. You'll
be able to return to this page again after you've seen the photo.

BACKGROUND

The earliest remaining visible sign of habitation in this area is
the Roman road from Bath to Poole which passes within a mile of the village,
to the east. The line of the road can still be walked, and includes a stone
causeway over a stream some two miles south-east of the village.

In the Domesday book of William the Conquerer (completed in the year
1086), the Manor of Norton with Hinton is recorded as supporting only 20
people, 3 ploughs, a mill of 5s. rent and 20 acres of meadow. We know what
the mill looked like, with an enormous wheel, the axle of which was a full
10 feet in diameter, since it was still working within living memory. Bits
of it still remain.

The ruins of Hinton Priory lie two miles to the north of the village.
The link between Norton and Hinton Priory began in 1232, when the Priory
was founded. It ended on March 31st 1540 when Prior Hood and his 23 monks
were evicted by the Commissioners of Henry VIII, at the time of the Dissolution
of the Monastries. During the life of the Priory, our village was in the
keeping of the Prior, as Lord of the Manor of Norton. The rule of the Priory
coloured the life of the village, and left marks on it that you can still
see today. The chief mark, perhaps, is the George Inn.

The monks of the Priory were Carthusians, an order of silent comtemplatives,
each living in his little house, with a small garden. Once a week they
had to take a long walk. Along the lane from Norton to Wellow there is
a stone bridge over the stream, by legend called Touchstone Bridge which
the monks would touch and then turn back, as the limit of their walk.

Norton and the wool trade. The downland then around the village
was ideal for raising sheep. The Priors of Hinton Priory quickly set about
expanding the wool trade and making Norton an important market for wool
and cloth. It's quite likely there was some sort of market here before
the founding of the Priory. Among old Somerset sayings, collected by the
Folk-lore Society, is the statement: "Norton were a Market Town when Taunton
were a vuzzy down". The old stone Market Cross, might have given us the
answer if it was still standing, which unfortunately it isn't. Certainly,
by 1500 the Parish Registers contain many names described as Cloth Merchant
or Weaver. Weaving and spinning was carried on in many of the cottages,
paid on piece work by the cloth merchants.

The village has come through the centuries remarkably undisturbed.
Architecturally, you see the mullion windows, the stone-tiled roofs and
the local stone facings of the cottages. Place names in the village and
around are, many of them, those in use at the time of Henry VIII and earlier.
A look at the Parish Registers of 1600 showed, a few years ago, that more
than 20 of the names found there were still represented in Norton. Some
of the great calamities of the country did touch Norton St Philip. The
Registers speak, in 1587, of "great mortality from a plague or sickness".
The Civil War impinged on the village in 1648. For June the 24th that year,
there is a reference to the burial of soldiers and civilians at Norton.
In 1685 the village was the scene of a battle during Monmouth's Rebellion,
which put the village's name in the history books (more on this event will
follow later). But in general the years went by and left the village, apart
from industrial and social changes, with much of its original character.

A HISTORICAL TOUR OF THE VILLAGE

At the top of Bell Hill (the A366 / B3110 road intersection).
The automatic cart-horse. Down the hill, where the Garage now is situated,
stood the Prince Blucher Inn. The heavy wagons, particularly the coal wagons
from Radstock, were defeated by the hill without extra help. So a rope
ran from the inn all the way up the hill to end in a bell which rang in
a stable in the courtyard of the George. In the stable was a cart-horse
whose job it was, on hearing the bell, to go down the hill, entirely on
its own, and help the wagon up to level ground at the top. It would there
be unhitched, a small sum of money would be placed in a leather pouch at
its head, and the horse would go back to its stable, again quite unsupervised.
Noone knows how far this arrangement goes back into history. It was certainly
operative within living memory. The last of a succession of automatic cart-horses,
before the First World War, was called Tom and the sum then to put in his
pouch was 3d. So Bell Hill is called that for a reason.

The
George Inn.This building has an international reputation
as one of the most ancient inns in the country. It used to be listed in
the Guinness Book of Records. The date given for its building is suggested
as 1223, and a continuous licence is claimed from 1397. This would have
been a licence allowed by the Prior, since the earliest Governmental licences
for alehouses date from 1552. The date of 1223 pre-dates the building of
the Priory, nine years later. It may have been that, when the monks moved
here to found the Priory, they first built on this spot to provide temporary
living accomodation. Whatever the accuracy of the dates, it is certain
that the monks built the present George Inn, and it served, during the
life of the Priory, as its guest house.

Up until a few years ago, you could enter from within the George
a well-constructed tunnel, some 5 feet high. For what its worth, this tunnel
has been traced with a divining rod all the way to the Priory. A while
ago, a dog fell into a subsided portion of the tunnel some way towards
Hinton. Tunnels of this sort are not uncommon, though there are various
theories for the use of this one - running liquor, a dry pathway under
the snows of the bitter winters experienced in those days?

Originally, it is thought, the George was a one-storey stone building.
With the growing importance of Norton as a centre for the wool trade, the
large upper storey was added to provide extra accomodation and space for
a wool store at the top of the house, with the necessary hoists to lift
and lower the wool. Structurally, the
court-yard, the little gallery open to the air leading to the bedrooms
(in the mediaeval manner), the turreted staircase and the stone ground
floor frontage, are the most interesting features.

The
Fleur de Lys. Across the road from the George, stands a building
which, from internal evidence of its beam structure, may be nearly as old
as the George itself. It was opened as an inn in 1584. Not long afterwards,
in 1615, Queen Anne of Denmark, wife of James the First, stopped here to
dine on her way back from taking the waters at Bath. Dinner for herself
and her retinue cost £2 13s 0d. Samuel Pepys, his wife and maid,
also dined here on their way to Bath in 1668. Their bill was 10s, 0d. On
the north wall of the 'Fleur' can still be seen a coat of arms, much worn
away, but with sufficient detail left to suggest the arms of the Fortescue
family who owned land in the district in the 16th century. An interesting
link between Norton St Philip and the Wars of the Roses: John Fortescue,
who had married Isabella, daughter of John Jamyss of Philip's Norton, was
Chief Justice to King Henry VI and so supported the Lancastrian cause.
Later he was pardoned by the victorious Yorkist King, Edward IV.

The
High Street. possesses examples of village architecture built over
a period of four or five hundred years. In the past many houses have been
erected along this street, have fallen into decay and been replaced by
later buildings. In a few cases, existing houses were carefully preserved,
and altered to suit the demands of succeeding generations. Today there
are at least two houses with traces of early mediaeval building, a number
of cottages built in 17th and 18th centuries, and a group of 19th century
houses. The pavement on both sides of the road is made of irregular stone
slabs, and at one point is extremely narrow. Almost all the houses are
built adjacent to eachother, which makes it impossible to determine the
materials of the end gable walls, although from the rear it is possible
to detect traces of rubble building which has often been replaced at the
front by later building materials, when the houses were modernised and
sometimes re-fenestrated.

Church
Mead (the village green) and the Church. There is at least one
reference to the practice of archery in the 15th century in this field,
now called Church Mead. Perhaps what the historian Trevelyan wrote about
the longbow might be interesting: "In the 14th century the longbow became
more and more the prescribed weapon, and the practice at the butts beside
the churchyard became the chief sport and excitement of village life. Edward
III encouraged it by royal proclamations, prohibiting under pain of imprisonment
'handball, football or hockey, coursing and cock-fighting, or other such
idle games" which drew men away from the butts. The art of the longbow
was so difficult that foreigners never learnt the knack that would send
an arrow through plate-mail. So Church Mead would have been a busy scene
in the days when Henry V's recruiting officers were gathering men from
the West Country for his expedition against France. You could say with
truth that the Battle of Agincourt was won on such village fields.

Fair Close, seperated from Church Mead by a stone wall, is
the site of the old Norton Fairs. The monks obtained a charter to hold
two fairs annually. The first, which lasted three days, began on the vigil
of the Feast of Saints Philip and James, and the second during the festival
of the Beheading of St John the Baptist. There were livestock fairs and
cloth fairs and, later, jolly roundabout fairs which lasted to within living
memory.

The Village Pound. Just below Fair Close is the site of the
old Village Pound - not much more than a walled enclosure now, this used
to be a livestock store.

The
church.Samuel Pepys, after dining at the Inn, walked down
to the church. He described what he found: "I walked to the church and
there saw a very ancient tomb of some Knight Templar, I think; and here
saw the tombstone whereon there were only two heads cut, which, the story
goes, and credibly, were two sisters, called the Fair Maids of Foscott,
that had two bodies upward and one belly, and there lie buried. Here is
also a very fine ring of six bells, and they mighty tuneable".

The fair maids of Foscott would have appealed to the curious Mr Pepys.
There is good reason to believe the legend, for its oddity and for the
fact that the church saw fit to commemorate the sisters. Foscott is a hamlet
a few miles from Norton. When Pepys saw the tomb, the effigy of the two
sisters was cut in stone on the floor of the nave. This has since disappeared
except for the two heads which are set on the wall inside the tower, one
clearly defined and one much worn.

The ancient tomb, thought by Pepys to be that of a Knight Templar,
is now thought to be that of a man of law, dated from circa 1460. Thoughts
about this tomb have varied very much. In his 'History of Somerset', 1791,
Collinson refers to the figure as that of a woman. This interpretation
was current at least up to 1847 when Dr James Tunstall, in his 'Rambles
about Bath and its Neighbourhood' - and they were quite erudite rambles
- went further, as follows: "In the south aisle there is a beautiful freestone
altar-tomb of a lady ... The style of the tomb is similar to the font,
which is octagonal, having obliterated coats of arms, interspersed with
figures, one of which represents the crucifixion. Armorial bearings on
fonts, and effigies of knights and ladies, became common after the crusades.
We therefore hazard the opinion that this is the tomb of the foundress
of Hinton Abbey - Ela, Countess of Salisbury". That may be fanciful, but
there is no certainty about the figure, which in one way makes it more
interesting. According to Arthur Mee "no other stone figure of the kind
is known".

Other features of the church. The church is mainly perpendicular
in style, of the 14th or 15th century, and probably not the original building.
Its chief peculiarity is the tower, of a decidedly odd but not unpleasing
shape. The west porch is reputed to have been built from stone removed
from Hinton Priory, but the Priory, as we have seen, was not demolished
until well into the 16th century, so this legend is suspect. Arthur Mee
describes the chancel: "not for miles around have we seen a chancel more
attractive than this from the nave. It has an old barrel tinder roof elaborately
panelled with tracery, oak screens on each side, the delicate colour of
the east window and the black and gold gates across the chancel arch".
The east window is by Christopher Webb and work here is as fine as his
more famous stained window in Salisbury Cathedral. In the window tracery
of the north wall is a little of the oldest glass in England, marked by
the richness of the blues. The tower has a chiming clock without a face.

Manor Farm and the Dovecot. The Manor Farm is among the oldest
buildings in the village, certainly contemporary with the monks of Hinton
Priory. The reeve, or agent of the Prior, would have lived in the village,
with the job of collecting the farm produce of those lands kept in the
hands of the Prior, as Lord of the Manor. He would have collected also
all those innumberable rent, labour services and small dues owed by the
manorial tenants - so many eggs at Easter, and so on. It is suggested the
Manor Farm, as it is now, originated as the reeve's house, or grange, and
the the huge barns, recently converted into a line of houses, were what
are generally called tithe barns. Another view is that the George was used
as the grange or central farm of the Lord of the Manor. What we can be
sure of is that the Flower family later lived in this house and farmed
land around Norton from the reign of Henry VIII. In the 16th century Geoffrey
Flower bought a house near the Stone Cross, and in 1584 this house was
let to one Richard Parson as an inn. Here you will recognise the 'Fleur
de Lys', and how the inn got its name. Geoffrey Flower was a rich man,
farming 735 acres. He contributed generously to the reconstruction of the
church and also was largely responsible for the rebuilding of Bath Abbey.

The Dovecot, also, is likely to have been built by the monks
as part of the Manor Farm complex, which also had a private chapel. The
dovecot is one of the finest examples of its sort in the UK. Our Preservation
Society had a major hand in raising money for its restoration in the 1970's.
There are 800 pigeon holes in total. The reason, of course, for dovecots
in those days can be given briefly as 'pigeon pie when you wanted it',
for the household of the Lord of the Manor. Much resented by farmers, to
whom pigeons were pests.

Lyde Green. Lyde Green may have been the earliest part of
the village. The triangle of grass here is, by tradition, the only remaining
common land in Norton St Philip, and the surrounding area may well have
been the 'Nortune' of Domesday Book which King William gave to Edward Devereux,
Earl of Salisbury and Sheriff of Wiltshire. The name, again, is an old
one, deriving from a spring called the Lyde. The prosperity of the village
came to some extent from its being well supplied with water. Many of the
cottages had their own wells, and still have, though they aren't used.

Bloody
Lane. The common name in the village for the steep little lane
running parellel to the main road up Bell Hill, is still 'Bloody Lane'
- not because its steepness taxes the elderly walker but because on one
occasion, some 300 years ago, it did literally run with blood ...

About the Monmouth Rebellion

On the 26th and 27th of June 1685, the village found itself in the
middle of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion against his Uncle, the Roman
Catholic King James II.

Monmouth had landed at Lyme Regis on the 11th June with 80 men. He
moved triumphantly through Taunton and Bridgewater, gathering men as he
went, until at one time, his troops numbered between six and seven thousand.
But they were untrained and ill-armed. The Royal Cavalry ran rings around
them at Keynsham Bridge, intercepting Monmouth's planned attack on Bristol.
It was a depleted and disheartened rebel army that trailed south past Bath,
in the hope of picking up more recruits in Wiltshire, and came to rest
for the night in Norton. That night may have been restful, but the next
day wasn't.

Monmouth arrived with his followers into the village in the late
evening of the 26th June 1685, from the direction of Bath. He made the
George Inn his headquarters, with billets being sought for his men, and
stables for the horses, throughout the village. Of special interest are
four guns that have been lugged up the steep inclines of approaching the
village. Norton has effectively become an armed camp.

The story has it that while Monmouth sat at a table in a room on
the first floor of the Inn, a shot rang out, the bullet shattering the
window and just missing the Duke. The would-be assassin must have been
a brave man, since he courted certain death. On the other hand, the reward
for Monmouth, dead or alive, was considerable. The circular mahogany dining-table
at which he sat, with an inscribed brass plate, was until the 1970's on
view in that same room.

The skirmish. Even as Monmouth was preparing to move on south,
on the 27th, news came of the approaching advance guard of the Royal Army.
Monmouth decided to stand and fight. He was a talented soldier, and judged
he was in a sound defensive position. Monmouth set up a strong barricade
in North
Street, which in those days was the main road out of the village towards
Bath. Here it was that the main fighting took place, with the King's troops
trying to break the barricade, and blood flowing down the lane. The turning
point came when Monmouth led a flank attack, infiltrating troops through
the grounds of a large house which then stood immediately to the east of
the road. A desultory artillery action, in heavy rain, lasted a further
6 hours before the King's army withdrew to Bradford-on-Avon. The skirmish
had cost them 80 dead. The rebels lost only 18 men - a tribute to Monmouth's
leadership. Cannon-balls have been ploughed up in the fields to the north
of the village. The north end of North Street is still known as Soho, which
was the battle cry of the rebels. In the manner of the time, the encounter
engendered a song in the village that day: "Monmouth is at Norton Town
/ All a-fighting for the Crown / Ho! boys, ho!".

The aftermath. Norton Town, however, had little cause for
rejoicing in the aftermath of the collapse of the rebellion. The defeat
of the King's army here was not forgotten. Evidence was not in great demand
at the Autumn Assizes in the West Country, presided over by Judge Jeffreys
and four other judges, required to deal with the large number of prisoners.
Those from Norton would have appeared before Assize Court at Wells. Apart
from men transported, fined or flogged, 12 men from the village were brought
back here and hanged in Bloody Close, behind the Fleur de Lys. Their bodies
were then hung about the village, until taken down, burnt and buried in
field behind the Fleur. In the Churchwardens' book there is an item of
12s for faggots for the pyre.

Stories of the skirmish. At the time when the rebel army was
first approaching the village, a man called Hart is reputed to have been
minding his cattle. When asked by Monmouth, "Who are you for?" he rashly
replied with great enthusiasm "For King and Country", whereupon his head
was removed with one stroke.

One of Monmouth's officers is reported to have left a valise behind
when the rebels moved off towards Frome on the night following the battle.
When this was opened it was found to be full of coins. This made the fortune
of a certain yeoman family, whose descendents still live in the district.

Finally, two men are said to have caught a stray sumpter mule or
baggage carrier. The value of its load never transpired, but the captors'
visits to the Fleur de Lys became more frequent and their potations became
stronger. They were known in the village thereafter as 'the sumptious muleteers'.

North Street. At the time of Monmouth, three cottages only
are shown on North Street. One has been altered as to make it unrecognisable
as to date. But the other two, Vanity Park Cottage and Prior's Cottage
remain. The internal timbers of Vanity Park show it to have been cruck-built,
a mediaeval method of construction. There are relieving arches over both
ground floor windows and the upper window in the tall gable, also there
are drip moulds over the windows and running above the door. Both cottages
were renovated in the late 16th or early 17th century. Inside Prior's Cottage
is a good example a stair turret, one of a number in the village, for instance
at the George and in the Malthouse. This is an early type of stairway,
before builders had the technical knowledge necessary for an internal staircase.